Anita Verma-Lallian, Director of Marketing of Vermaland, began helping her father Kuldip Verma with his different businesses. She always knew she would be involved in the family business one day. She acquired both her Bachelor of Science in business administration and her Master of Business Administration, and worked for several well-known corporations such as Honeywell and American Express before coming to her father’s company. Ten years later, Verma-Lallian is an important part of the company, especially regarding the solar sector. When Phoenix entered a real estate recession in 2006, her father had the instinct that the solar industry was going to expand. Verma- Lallian, who was just joining her father’s company, was instrumental in running the solar division and dedicated herself to learning about it. Since then, Verma-Lallian has helped the company expand, with Vermaland investing more than $5 million in the solar industry.
“As the solar companies have acquired more land, the land supply has gone down, which has kept pricing high,” she explains. This strategic land acquisition is symbolic of Vermaland’s mission: to acquire large tracts of land about 10-15 miles away from existing development for commercial, residential, agricultural or utility projects. Vermaland has approximately 25,000 acres of land currently, in parcels of 20-1100 acres in the Phoenix metro area. “As the path of growth heads towards
our land, we develop these tracts of land for the appropriate end user or investor,” Verma-Lallian says.
For 2017, Vermaland will be busy developing several of their housing subdivisions, one of which is in Waddell, Arizona.
It’s a custom, one-acre gated community. “We are looking forward to this project, since it’s been on hold after the
market crash in 2007,” Verma-Lallian says. Vermaland also has several solar projects with some large Fortune 500
companies that are in progress. In 2013, Verma-Lallian and her sister, Jennifer Verma, formed the Verma
Charitable Foundation in honor of their parents. Jennifer had the idea after studying the philanthropy of other large companies
while in business school. Through the foundation, the sisters have raised nearly $1.5 million and are actively identifying causes they hoped to donate to. In the past, the Verma Charitable Foundation provided scholarships to underprivileged students and has a proposed religious retreat center to promote a healthy and balanced lifestyle through yoga and meditation. Charities that interest Verma-Lallian are those that would help people from India.
“My parents are from India and have grown up seeing the poverty that exists there,” she explains. “Helping those from India
is something my family would love to do!”
For more information, contact 602.274.0700 or www.vermaland.com
3001 W. Indian School Rd. Suite 140,
Phoenix, AZ 85017.
